Boston Bombing Suspect Receives All-Star Defense Team

FBI (BOSTON) -- Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev managed to say just one word to a federal judge when charges were filed against him in a makeshift courtroom held at the side of his hospital bed: "No."

His reply was in response to whether he could afford an attorney.

As a result, Tsarnaev, 19, who is facing the possibility of the death penalty for his alleged role in last week's terror attack, will be represented by one of the most experienced and well respected public defenders in the country, Miriam Conrad.

Conrad heads the Federal Public Defender Office in Boston and her resume includes defending "shoe bomber" Richard Reid in 2001 for trying to blow up a Paris to Miami jetliner.

"She is excellent, tough, tenacious and wise," said Tamar R. Birckhead, now a University of North Carolina law professor who worked with Conrad for four years, including on the Reid case.

Tsarnaev is charged with detonating a weapon of mass destruction and maliciously destroying public property -- capital offenses that carry the death penalty. He is currently in the hospital being treated for wounds sustained in a shootout with police last week prior to his capture.

Conrad and several other attorneys from her office were listed in court documents as the team representing Tsarnaev. Among them was William S. Fick, who was present at Monday's hearing held inside Tsarnaev's hospital room. Fick requested additional help from attorneys who have previously handled death penalty cases, a requirement under federal law.

Conrad and her team have a difficult case ahead of them. They are trying to keep alive someone many would consider to be the most hated man in America. Their client is bedridden and barely able to communicate. Facing budget cuts as a result of the federal sequester, they are up against the U.S. attorney general and FBI that have made Tsarnaev's prosecution a top priority.

"It's a David and Goliath situation," said Birckhead. "There's an assumption that the defendant is guilty, and should be immediately executed. All of that is a tough road to travel."

Click here to read the full article

ABC News Radio, April 24, 2013

Marathon tragedy fails to help death-penalty push

BOSTON -- The House killed a budget amendment reinstating the death penalty Tuesday, with area lawmakers split on whether the Boston Marathon bombings should sway the Legislature's vote.

"I would assume that with everything that's happened, with public-safety people putting their lives on the line, we would feel that we owe it to them to protect them," state Rep. James Miceli, the Wilmington Democrat who filed the amendment, said in an interview after the vote.

The amendment, filed before the Boston tragedy that killed three people and injured more than 260, would have imposed the death penalty for murders of public officials, including police, firefighters, and corrections officers.

On a 119 to 38 vote, the House rejected attaching Miceli's amendment to budget deliberations and sent it to the Judiciary Committee to study the death penalty's economic impacts. But some legislators, including Miceli and Rep. Shauna O'Connell, R-Taunton, were skeptical the Legislature would ever see the study's results.

"There will be no study; if there is it will be a one-page report," Miceli said.

The Legislature has rebuffed other efforts to reinstate the death penalty. Former Gov. Mitt Romney filed legislation in 2005 that would have imposed the death penalty for murders of police officers, terrorism or torture.

Massachusetts, which abolished the death penalty in 1984, is one of 17 states without it. New Hampshire is the only New England state that has a death penalty.

Source: Lowell Sun, April 24, 2013

Singapore executes three drug mules over two days

Singapore hanged three people for drug offences last week, bringing the total number of executions to 17 this year - the highest since 2003. These come a week before a constitutional challenge against the death penalty for drug offences is due to be heard. Singapore has some of the world's harshest anti-drug laws, which it says are a necessary deterrent to drug crime, a major issue elsewhere in South East Asia. Anyone convicted of trafficking - which includes selling, giving, transporting or administering - more than 15g of diamorphine, 30g of cocaine, 250g of methamphetamine and 500g of cannabis in Singapore will be handed the death sentence.

Florida | After nearly 50 years on death row, Tommy Zeigler seeks final chance at freedom

The Winter Garden Police chief was at a party on Christmas Eve 1975 when he received a phone call from his friend Tommy Zeigler, the owner of a furniture store on Dillard Street. “I’ve been shot, please hurry,” Zeigler told the chief as he struggled for breath. When police arrived at the store, Zeigler, 30, managed to unlock the door and then collapsed “with a gaping bullet hole through his lower abdomen,” court records show. In the store, detectives found a gruesome, bloody crime scene and several guns. Four other people — Zeigler’s wife, his in-laws and a laborer — lay dead.

Louisiana death row inmate freed after nearly 30 years as overturned conviction upends case

A Louisiana man who spent nearly 30 years on death row walked out of prison Wednesday after a judge overturned his conviction and granted him bail. Jimmie Duncan, now in his 60s, was sentenced to death in 1998 for the alleged rape and drowning of his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter, Haley Oliveaux — a case long clouded by disputed forensic testimony. His release comes months after a state judge ruled that the evidence prosecutors used to secure the conviction was unreliable and rooted in discredited bite-mark analysis.

Vietnam | Woman sentenced to death for poisoning 4 family members with cyanide

A woman in Dong Nai Province in southern Vietnam was sentenced to death on Thursday for killing family members including two young children in a series of cyanide poisonings that shocked her community. The Dong Nai People's Court found 39-year-old Nguyen Thi Hong Bich guilty of murder and of illegally possessing and using toxic chemicals. Judges described her actions as "cold-blooded, inhumane and calculated," saying Bich exploited the trust of her victims and "destroyed every ethical bond within her family."

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester. Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Utah | Ralph Menzies dies on death row less than 3 months after his execution was called off

Judge was set to consider arguments in December about Menzies’ mental fitness Ralph Menzies, who spent more than 3 decades on Utah’s death row for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker, has died. Menzies, 67, died of “presumed natural causes at a local hospital” Wednesday afternoon, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. Matt Hunsaker, Maurine Hunsaker’s son, said Menzies’ death “was a complete surprise.” “First off, I’d say that I’m numb. And second off, I would say, grateful,” Hunsaker told Utah News Dispatch. “I’m grateful that my family does not have to endure this for the holidays.”

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers carry out public execution in sports stadium

The man had been convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including children, and was executed by one of their relatives, according to police. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities carried out the public execution of a man on Tuesday convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including several children, earlier this year. Tens of thousands of people attended the execution at a sports stadium in the eastern city of Khost, which the Supreme Court said was the eleventh since the Taliban seized power in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces.

Afghanistan | Two Sons Of Executed Man Also Face Death Penalty, Says Taliban

The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that two sons of a man executed earlier that day have also been sentenced to death. Their executions, he said, have been postponed because the heir of the victims is not currently in Afghanistan. Mostaghfer Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, also released details of the charges against the man executed on Tuesday, identified as Mangal. He said Mangal was accused of killing members of a family.

Iran carries out public hanging of "double-rapist"

Iran on Tuesday publicly executed a man after convicting him of raping two women in the northern province of Semnan. The execution was carried out in the town of Bastam after the Supreme Court upheld the verdict, the judiciary's official outlet Mizan Online reported. Mizan cited the head of the provincial judiciary, Mohammad Akbari, as saying the ruling had been 'confirmed and enforced after precise review by the Supreme Court'. The provincial authority said the man had 'deceived two women and committed rape by force and coercion', adding that he used 'intimidation and threats' to instil fear of reputational harm in the victims.

Kuwait | New Anti-Drug Law Introduces Death Penalty, Surprise Testing, and Strict Enforcement

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 26: Divorce rates in Kuwait are rising, with recent statistics indicating that addiction—particularly among wives—has become a significant contributing factor. In response, authorities are preparing to introduce surprise premarital drug testing as part of a broader set of reforms under Kuwait’s new drug law. The countdown has officially begun for the enforcement of this new legislation, which was drafted by a judicial committee formed by the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Sheikh Fahd Al-Yousef. The committee is headed by Counselor Mohammed Rashid Al-Duaij.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog